No favours for 30,000 Kenyans at risk in US

Thirty thou­sand Kenyans are at risk of de­por­ta­tion from the United States after Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump en­ters of­fice on Jan­uary 20, 2017. They are il­le­gal im­mi­grants and Pres­i­dent-elect Trump pledged to rid the US of all un­reg­is­tered for­eign­ers on Sun­day.

What is to be done? Gov­ern­ment Spokesman Eric Ki­raithe re­marked yes­ter­day that the state does not take any­one any­where on an il­le­gal ba­sis, sig­nalling that the Ju­bilee ad­min­is­tra­tion has washed its hands of the 30,000.

Those who have com­mit­ted crimes among these Kenyans should not ex­pect a warm wel­come back, but the rest of them de­serve a sec­ond chance and the skills and ex­per­tise they have ac­quired in their years in the US could come in use­ful.

Kenyan Di­as­pora re­mit­tances from the US are our largest source of for­eign ex­change. It is re­gret­table that so many Kenyans should be ex­pelled from Amer­ica in one fell swoop. But they should ex­pect no pref­er­en­tial treat­ment.